The Amazing Al Thani Collection: An Unforgettable Experience
The House of Al Thani, the Qatari ruling dynasty, has a notable collection of royal jewelry, thought to be valued at over $1 billion.
The Al Thani Collection collection includes a variety of rare and valuable jewels and works from antiquity to the present.
Also, this amazing collection honors innovation and the enduring power of art through the ages, using an encyclopedic approach while showcasing a wide range of nations and civilizations.
The Al Thani Collection And The Galleries
The Al Thani Collection Foundation is a nonprofit organization whose main goal is to enhance and promote art and culture. Through its programs and activities, the Collection's artwork is made available to a wider audience.
Public art efforts, such as sponsorships, museum projects, exhibitions, an international loans program, and scholarly publications honoring creative success across a broad diversity of civilizations, are the primary means by which this goal is achieved.
Highlights from The Al Thani Collection have been on public display at the Hôtel de la Marine in Paris, a specialized museum venue, since November 2021.
These galleries also hold educational lectures and activities, as well as a biennial series of themed exhibitions and loans from foreign museum partners, according to thealthanicollection.com.
Homage
The Hôtel de la Marine's museum space for the Al Thani Collection pays homage to the building's early past when exhibition halls were constructed to showcase priceless items from the collections of French royalty.
The Garde-Meuble de la Couronne became the first museum to open in Paris as a result of Louis XVI allowing the general public to visit the exhibition halls one Tuesday a month between April and November.
The selection of the scenography and design for the Collection's presentation at the Hôtel de la Marine was well thought out.
Constructed with significant support from the French royal family, the monument boasts ornate interiors from the 18th and 19th centuries, all in a neoclassical style.
The Al Thani Collection's four galleries are housed in what was once the Royal tapestry storerooms. Despite being on the piano nobile, these chambers are devoid of any décor.
Early on, it was decided not to attempt to recreate any part of the original public exhibition areas of the Hôtel du Garde-Meuble, which was designed by Jean-Démosthène Dugourc for intendant Thierry de Ville-D'Avray, nor to create an imitation of an Ancien Régime interior.
Infrastructure-wise, a museum space that satisfies today's standards for conservation and display has very specific requirements, and it was determined that the design of the space should embrace modern technology and design rather than look to the past.
Archaeology Of The Future
Tsuyoshi Tane, an innovative architect, and his team at Atelier Tsuyoshi Tane Architects were recommended to The Al Thani Collection by artist Hiroshi Sugimoto.
Their task was to create a concept for the space, keeping in mind that the objects should be allowed to speak for themselves instead of being overpowered by elaborate décor.
Based on their credo, "Archaeology of the Future," ATTA's proposal combined ancient artistic achievements with French history from the 18th century, superimposing them in a time-traveling 21st-century environment to create a seamless "dialogue across time and space".
The first gallery features over 3,000 ornaments that create an immersive universe. The Versailles pattern, which was created in the 17th century to replace the wooden floors of the Palace of Versailles, is used throughout the museum.
This made it possible for ATTA to overlay the building's original timber structure with natural stone using modern methods.
The gallery's walls are constructed with a classic stucco crétail finish, and each area has a progressively lighter tone to draw attention to the artwork on exhibit.
Pure titanium crystallization harmonizes with genuine stone crystals in all of the display cases that Goppion has custom-designed and manufactured to the highest standards.
The 2023-2024 Exhibition
From 30 June 2023 to 7 January 2024, the Al Thani Collection Foundation and the Centre des Monuments Nationaux, in collaboration with the Victoria and Albert Museum, organized a special exhibition.
The exhibition brought together outstanding pieces of art from antiquity to the early modern era, showcasing a wide range of about 65 artworks selected from across the Collection.
Honoring the ability of art to unite people from many cultural backgrounds, it presented outstanding pieces of art from various civilizations, showcasing to the general public the pinnacles of artistic expression from various eras and regions.
Highlights of the collection, which was on display in three of the hotel's four galleries, included a Chinese gilt-bronze sculpture of a seated bear from the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 25) and an Egyptian head of a royal figure carved from red jasper (1475-1292 BC).
Other pieces included a pendant with a Maya mask from the 200–600 AD period and a "Stargazer" (c. 3300–2500 BC) made of ancient marble.
When you have the opportunity to visit The Al Thani Collection, don't hesitate to do so, as it will surely be an unforgettable experience whether you are a collector or a simple lover of beautiful things.
